FEATURE:
Compilation Heaven!
The Continued Popularity of the NOW That’s What I Call Music! Series
___________
BECAUSE NOW That’s What I Call Music! 105 is due…
very soon, I am putting the series under the microscope. I wrote about the compilation series a while back, but I think there is a chance to reassess it and see why it remains so popular. I think the next edition of the series is out next month but, considering what is happening now, it might be delayed. I think reaching the milestone of one-hundred-and-five is pretty special! The NOW That’s What I Call Music! compilation was born in the same year as me: 1983. I cannot remember the original T.V. advert for the first one, but I look back at it now and it must have been so exciting! Before then, there had not really been a proper compilation of the year’s best hits. On 28th November, 1983, You Can’t Hurry Love by Phil Collins sat alongside Temptation by Heaven 17 and Shy by Kajagoogoo! Although these hits would have been on the radio and familiar to everyone, the fact you could own it on cassette must have been something! Now, that sort of convenience almost seems impractical, as one can stream all the latest hits on their phone. I think it was much more than having ownership of all the top tunes; something you could digest and share with friends. Although what defines the best hits is subjective and often based on commercial measures, look through the series and you cannot really fault them. NOW That’s What I Call Music! 5 of 5th August, 1985 is one of the highlights of the 1980s - I think there are some pretty decent tracks on that edition.
For me, it is the NOW That’s What I Call Music! runs of the 1990s that particular appeal. I may have mentioned this a few times, but the first album I recall buying is NOW That’s What I Call Music! 24 not long after it came out on 16th April, 1993. I was just about ten at that time, and the sheer delight of having so many tracks – thirty-seven – in my hands was a bit too much. Through the years, the series increased the number of tracks included and, whilst most of the tracks were Pop and chart-based, I think it became more diverse as time went on. I think the years 199-1993 were golden for Pop music in general. NOW That’s What I Call Music! 23 arrived earlier in 1993 and sported Sleeping Satellite by Tasmin Archer, Would I Lie to You? By Charles & Eddie, People Everyday by Arrested Development and the terrific Digging in the Dirt by Peter Gabriel among its thirty-nine cuts! NOW That’s What I Call Music! 24 has everything from Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) by Sub Sub featuring Melanie Williams, Step It Up by The Stereo MC's and Is It Like Today by World Party. Look at the tracklisting for NOW That’s What I Call Music! 25 from later in 1993, and you can see what a marvellous year it really was! I was aware of NOW That’s What I Call Music! before I bought my first copy, but I became hooked for many years.
Not only was the compilation a dream in terms of the standard of material, but it opened my eyes to what music really was. I think, until that point in 1993, I was listening to certain albums and was not really mixing things together at all; not as much as I should have been. The NOW That’s What I Call Music! compilation was like a yearbook of musical memories, but it also opened up school conversation: we would discover new artists and genres from dissecting the latest NOW That’s What I Call Music! I think the series remained fairly loyal to its Pop and Dance base through the years, and it is wonderful to see things continue to this very day. Maybe the quality has declined through the years too – as the mainstream and charts is not as strong as it once was -, but people still download and buy the album. The fact that a compilation album is still purchased is testament to its appeal. One does not merely skip tracks on NOW That’s What I Call Music! and discard the album. For so many people, the latest collection is a document of the year’s music and, as such, there is a lot more to grab the attention that most albums. NOW That’s What I Call Music! also started to branch out and include decades and genres as opposed to a particular year of music – you can see the whole range here.
When NOW That’s What I Call Music! 100 arrived in 2018, a few articles were published to pay tribute to the wonderful, decades-running series. This feature from The Guardian took us inside the process and spoke with those compiling the latest series. The piece ended with various people in music remarking why they like NOW That’s What I Call Music! The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis sort of hits the nail on the head:
“Alexis Petridis, music critic I never bought a Now compilation when I was a kid. I’ve no idea why – I was 12 in 1983, the ideal age. Then, a few years ago, I was researching a feature about compilations, and ended up listening to Now 5. Somewhere between Simple Minds’ Don’t You Forget About Me and The Commentators’ N-n-nineteen Not Out, I found myself fully transported back to 1985. It happened because the albums were, and are, compiled without discrimination: if it’s a hit, it’s in, regardless of whether it’s good or bad, built to last for ever or destined to be forgotten in a flash. It offered pop’s past not seen through the distorting lens of nostalgia, but as it really was: a perfect time capsule”.
The series took over America fifteen years after it started in U.K., and there is even a NOW That’s What I Call Music! night in Manchester.
Regardless of whether you were alive when NOW That’s What I Call Music! started, or you have got into it because of your parents; one can refute the well-stocked and varied hits one gets on the compilation. I have been dipping into various NOW That’s What I Call Music! years online, and comparing the hits of the 1980s, ‘90s and ‘00s with the last decade or so. I think that many agree that the 1990s provided some of the very best NOW That’s What I Call Music! released – and some will disagree when it comes to the exact placing. I guess it sort of all depends on when you were born and were a teenager in regards the very ‘best’ compilation. I guess we sort of cherish the ones we experienced when in middle and high school, but I love so many of the NOW That’s What I Call Music! compilations. One can gleam a feel of a year from Spotify; you can stream various playlists, but NOW That’s What I Call Music! is different. Constantly, NOW That’s What I Call Music! hits the number-one slot for compilation album, and it is wonderful we still have an appetite for the series nearly thirty-seven years after it started. Maybe it is the sheer quality and number of tracks provided, or it might have something to do with NOW That’s What I Call Music! being this institution and collector’s series. I wonder whether those in charge of the NOW That’s What I Call Music! archives will reissue all the series on cassettes. I think they would prove popular and, if anyone has one of the old NOW That’s What I Call Music! albums on tape, I can imagine they would sell for a pretty penny! To the young, the NOW That’s What I Call Music! release might be a handy way of streaming/buying the best tracks from the year but, for me and so many others, NOW That’s What I Call Music! is this comforting time capsule that soundtracks the music we grew up on; how things have changed through the years too. I really hope that NOW That’s What I Call Music! continues strong…
FOR many more years.